A Sermon preached by The Revd Ken Masters at Pen Selwood

on 2^nd Sunday before Lent, 20 February 2022

Readings: Genesis 2^4b-9,15-25; Luke 8^22-25

There was nothing surprising in a storm on the Sea of Galilee.  In the afternoon, now as then, the wind can sweep down from the Golan Heights and stir up violent waves – that then subside, just as quickly.  More surprising was the reaction of the disciples.  ‘Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?”

Today, especially after Storm Eunice, we may think about storms the other way round.  Human beings are having such an effect upon the Earth’s climate – with all the pollution and carbon dioxide we are producing – that we are causing more storms, as well as higher temperatures, as well as all the plastic.

Scientists, ecologists and many young people tell us that a 4 degree increase of average temperatures by the end of the century will drastically change the climate and the sea levels.  Will we be able to rise to the challenge of the effect we are having on the Earth?  This is not only for our own sake, but for the sake of our children and grandchildren – and, as always, for the sake of the poorer and less powerful peoples of the world.

From a human perspective, we are all called to face this challenge.  Politically and economically, we have to make choices.  To avoid global disaster, we need to consume less energy – to reduce our carbon footprint – and both give an example and help the developing countries to do the same.

A question for us is how we do this as followers of Christ.  It’s not, of course, the first time the Christian Church, along with the society in which it is set, has had to face disaster.  The Early Christians, only 40 years after Jesus’ Crucifixion and Resurrection, saw the Roman armies destroy Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 ad.  In the Middle Ages, there was the Black Death, which swept round from the Far East to Europe and then England in May 1348.  It had a mortality rate of between 20 to 50% – profoundly affecting rural society and the national economy.  There were further plagues in the 1350s, the 1370s and subsequent centuries.

So, what do Christians do in the face of disaster?  Most of the time we caught up in it just like anyone else.  But we have a vocation to look for God – and to worship, serve and trust Him in whatever happens; as well as a corresponding vocation to love our neighbours.  One outstanding example was in 1665, when bubonic plague struck the village of Eyam in Derbyshire (which I visited last September).  To prevent spreading infection the villagers followed the advice of their rector and his predecessor and confined themselves strictly within their parish boundaries.  It took 14 months and claimed the lives of 260 villagers, but their strong Christian commitment, personal courage and self-sacrifice prevented the plague spreading.

In the very different circumstances of today, their example may inspire us as we face the challenges of our time.  Other pointers come from today’s Bible readings.  The second story of creation in Genesis, part of which we heard this morning, tells of God making the earth and the heavens – and then of a time of innocence, in the Garden of Eden.  After that came The Fall.  That pictured the fact that we are sinful human beings.  Not, a very fashionable thing to say, but it may help get us past the barriers of self-satisfaction and thinking we are always right.  An awareness of sinfulness can positively lead to repentance – part of the meaning of which is to change our life style.

After Jesus had stilled the storm, he asked the disciples, ‘Where is your faith?’  St Mark’s version asks [4⁴⁰]: ‘Why are you such cowards?’  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, ‘Do not be anxious about tomorrow.’  Instead, ‘Set your mind on God’s kingdom and his justice before everything else, and all the rest will come to you as well.’ [Matt 6^34,33]

As followers of the One who died on a cross and then was raised to eternal life, we are to trust God and find his will for us.  We have the basic challenge as individuals, and as a parish church, to be far more careful in our use of energy.  This includes such obvious details in our homes and in our church building – as LEDs or low energy light bulbs, turning lights off, insulation, and forms of heating.  It also covers more corporate issues, such as decisions about waste, travel, finance, donations, and influencing politics and economics.  As a Church of England parish, we need to take our part in tackling this whole problem.

With love of God and our neighbour in mind, we are to do our best for His Creation and our Earth.  And we remember that God’s spirit and grace will be with us.  But we really need to do all that we can – and then commit the rest to God.

I’ll finish with a prayer used at my theological college:

May the sacred feast of thy table, O Lord, always strengthen and renew us; guide and protect us in our weakness amid the storms of this world, and bring us to the haven of eternal salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.   [Cuddesdon Office Book]

A Sermon preached by The Revd Ken Masters at Wincanton

on 1st Sunday in Lent, 6 March 2022

Readings: Romans 10^8b-13; Luke 4^1-13

This sermon is the second in our Lent Series on The Lord’s Prayer.  Today we look at ‘Lead us not into temptation’.  And I’ll start with a cautionary verse by Hilaire Belloc:

The Devil, having nothing else to do,

Went off, to tempt my Lady Poltagrue.

My Lady, tempted by a private whim,

To his extreme annoyance, tempted him.     [Q&A, C37]

Or there’s the anonymous saying: ‘I can resist everything, except temptation.’   [Ibid]

However, these show the rather light-hearted ways we think of temptation.  So, let’s consider this phrase in The Lord’s Prayer.  It seems puzzling that we ask God not to tempt us.  Pope Francis, four years ago, said he wanted to make it clear that God would not lead anybody toward sin.  He suggested a better translation of the Greek prayer from the New Testament would be along the lines of, “Do not let us fall into temptation.”

Part of the problem is also because language has changed –the word ‘temptation’ to us can denote wickedness, in a rather shallow way.  We talk about being tempted by chocolates or another drink.  The original sense referred to a time of testing or a trial of faith.  When the General Synod debated a modern version of The Lord’s Prayer in 1980 and again in 2000, before authorising new prayer books, it (wrongly in my view) voted down the phrase ‘put us not to the test’, because of its associations with exams and Test Matches.

In St Luke’s version of The Lord’s Prayer the word ‘tempt-ation’ is used to translate the Greek peirasmos.  Exactly the same word is used in Jesus’ Temptations in the Wilderness.  Having been spiritually uplifted at his Baptism, Jesus was then impelled by the Spirit into the Judean desert for forty days to be tempted, tested.  ‘Forty’ was a round number that brought to mind the ‘forty’ years the People of Israel were in the desert after the Exodus.  And, in fact, Jesus’ answers to the three Temptations or Tests, are from a summary of Israel’s testing in the book of Deuteronomy (8³, 6¹³, 6¹⁶).  To turn stone into bread, was to revolt against God through hunger: but Deut 8.3 ‘Man does not live by bread alone’.  To worship the devil in return for worldly wealth, was to compromise with worldly values:  but Deut 6.13 ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’  To expect angels to protect him in a foolish dangerous act was a wrong way of treating God: but Deut 6.16 ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’  [See C F Evans, The Lord’s Prayer, p.66f]

Luke’s other important use of the word peirasmos is in his account of the Garden of Gethsemane: Jesus twice told his disciples: ‘Pray that you may not come into the time of trial.’  [Lk 22⁴⁰]  Luke states: Jesus ‘withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.’  He knew his enemies were closing in.  Should he run away – stand firm or climb down?  Was he to be true to the voice at his Baptism, and at the Transfiguration: “You are my beloved Son?”  Jesus prayed desperately not to have to suffer; but then faithfully submits himself to his Father’s will; not his own.

From the accounts of the Temptations in the Wilderness and the Garden of Gethsemane we can perhaps see better what Jesus meant by ‘Lead us not into temptation’ in The Lord’s Prayer.  It is an existential question of the survival of our integrity and faith.  It may be that we are going to have to face something we dread: life changes, decisions of honesty and love; or by the suffering of someone we love, or our own illness or mortality.  We naturally ask our heavenly Father to spare us or save us from such trials.  It may be what went through the minds of people in Ukraine, faced by an aggressive and hugely powerful enemy – and will still be their prayer now.  They – and we on their behalf – may fervently ask our heavenly Father to ‘remove this cup’ from them.  We all shrink from being tested beyond our limits – and so cry out: “spare us from experiencing such severe trials and testing”.  ‘Lead us not into temptation.’

On earth, we do not know what the limits are to what God can do.  We do not know what may happen to us – or what may come out of it.  What we do know is that God is our heavenly Father – and like a good human father, will do all he can to care for us and help us live in honesty, integrity and love.  But he cannot prevent us from suffering hurt or pain – they are part of being human.  What we also know is that the Lord we follow called us to take up our cross and follow him –he promised us to be with us always – and he told us how to pray.  In voicing his prayer, we must always remember to do so in trust.  We are called to be faithful – and God will be faithful to us in his His tender loving mercy.

So, as I finish, I have to say that I may have made temptation too serious for everyday use!  I have also to admit that neither temptation nor test nor trial is precisely the right word.  It is clear that, ‘Lead us not into temptation’ is no soft option.  As we ask for deliverance, if it is possible, we ask also for grace and strength to pray equally ‘your kingdom come, your will be done; on earth as in heaven’.

‘For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and for ever.  Amen.’

Romans 10:8b-13, Luke 4:1-13

In the name of the father, and the son and the Holy Spirit. AmenSo, there we have Jesus in the wilderness from our gospel today, in great hunger, refusing the temptation of bread when offered great authority and glory. Refusing the temptation to deflect worship and service from God, and when offered the opportunity to take things into his own hands, refusing the temptation associated with the  power he had from God

In our Lenten series looking at the Lord’s prayer, we are going to think about temptation too, particularly in line with the Lord’s prayer phrase – Lead us not into temptation!

So how good are we at resisting temptation? Temptation comes in all shapes and sizes:-

• Food of every kind, colour and dimension.

• Drink of a variety of kinds.

• Drugs we should not take.

• Other Addictions (with an 18 certificate!) – computer games, television, sex, self-harming, obsessive/compulsive stuff.

Then there is

• Idolatry – worshipping and serving other things before God.

• Sports people and teams, political allegiances, celebrities.

• Even keeping fit ourselves can become an idol.

• Grabbing power and control for ourselves is another temptation.

• Putting our needs over and above the needs of anyone else or the common good is also up there!

• Another really prevalent temptation is to believe we can be self-sufficient, when God has designed us to live in loving relationship with him and in community, loving and supporting each other.

In a way we would seem to have far more distractions and temptations in our modern era, than the folk of Jesus day, particularly in the communication and technology arena. There is not much doubt that many are also pretty addicted to their mobile phones and other gadgets and living in a virtual world not the real world. The pandemic has not helped us with this!

Temptation is a fact of our lives. It is not that something is possible that matters but whether it is something we should actually do that matters. There are times when we need to look at our lives and reflect on where we are going and what choices we are making.

A few years ago I acquired a Lord’s prayer picture book, it contains coloured pictures drawn by Richard Jesse Watson with hidden depths in them. There is a picture for each phrase of the Lord’s prayer. All the human characters in the pictures are children as we are all children of God. The image for temptation is a small boy looking in the mirror. Perhaps that is what the little boy was doing in the picture – trying to weigh up the right choice or reflect as he looked at his reflection in the mirror on something that perhaps wasn’t doing him any good. (I think the candle is more about deliver us from evil but that’s a talk for another day)

We need to be careful of our language in relation to temptation. The question “what is your guilty pleasure?” these days is wrapping up something we know is wrong but we still give into because of its lure.

Let’s take a moment to contrast us with Jesus’ example in our gospel this morning. Jesus entered his wilderness times full of the Spirit and the Spirit helped him withstand the temptations he encountered. If we are open to that Spirit too in our hearts and lives, it will help us do battle with our temptations too and even whether we describe them as guilty pleasures or not.

If we think abit deeper about what happened here, this series of tests follows Jesus’ baptism where God’s love for him is powerfully revealed. It is at the start of his ministry and he goes away to reflect on what his mission will be like. The devil’s temptations point Jesus towards his need to trust God and resist the urge to win people over through power and show. Jesus’ experience here is the model for our practice of Lent. Done prayerfully Lent is a sort of wilderness experience where we look again at our lives and reflect on where we are going. In Lent, we take the time to choose to do this and this discipline will help us. Actually addressing our temptations can be a difficult place for us whatever, where the voice of our conscience and that of our shadow side collide. These light and dark sides to our lives occur because we are human.

In Lent, to push ourselves towards the light, we concentrate on our spiritual development. This inevitably reminds us that ‘we don’t live on bread alone’, but that we need to feed the spiritual side of our lives, which in turn will make us more aware of the needs of others and the need to respond with God’s generous love in all aspects of our life. Increasing the Spirit’s influence will also help us to move away from habits and addictions that are taking as in directions that are not good for us. We particularly need to focus on areas where we seek to be served and not to serve and areas where we are struggling with power and control. Either using the power we have inappropriately or trying to control things to our own ends. From all of this it is clear that resisting temptation conversely can be one of the things that can strengthen our resolve.

An alternative translation is And do not bring us to the time of trial. The reason for the dilemma in translation here is in the wording, particularly what is meant by the greek word peirasmos, which can be rendered as “temptation” or “testing”. One of my Biblical interpretation sources shared this useful thought. The best explanation of this phrase is that of human frailty, the frailty that Jesus points to in Mark 14:38 in the words “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” (there Jesus recommends, in words similar to the petition of the Lord’s Prayer, prayer that we might not be buffeted by trial or trials).

Therefore we are to think here of what might buffet us and create a pressure upon our loyalty to God that in our frailty we might not be able to withstand. The commentary ends with a rather sobering thought that we will come back to on Maundy Thursday – It says A good example might be the kind of pressure that faced Jesus in Gethsemane as he contemplated his own imminent suffering.

Whether this is testing, the time of trial or temptation – we do all know what our own particular issues are and the areas of our lives where we are most fallible and frail! We also need to be honest with ourselves and with God and where necessary strengthen our resolve to do better.

I was very struck by some challenging words from Joanna Collicut’s on this topic and this is where I am going to finish today: –

In our relationship with God – We also need to be careful of prayer – even that can be a kind of idolatry. For if we are not careful – even in our prayer can end up using words of control and treat God as an object that can be controlled by our words. We need to be very wary of prescriptive prayer telling God what to do. My experience is that we cannot control God and worse our attempts to do so will limit us and more importantly God’s power in our lives. Amen

References

The word biblical commentary Luke 1:1-9:20 – John Nolland et al, Joanna Collicutt – When you pray (edition 1) BRF Lent book

New Revised Standard Version (Anglican Edition) copyright 1989 and 1995.

Ash Wednesday 2022

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17, Matthew 6;1-6.16-21

In the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Amen

As we travel through Lent this year, we will be considering the phrases that make up the Lord’s prayer in the version we most commonly use in Church. As we do this we will be contemplating what Jesus really said about that phrase and what he really meant (whether or not as we shall see what we say in the prayer itself is actually in the 2 different gospel account versions from Matthew and Luke).

I will also be sharing with you week by week the pictures in this book which accompany each phrase. This is a book I acquired quite by chance. It contains coloured pictures drawn by Richard Jesse Watson, with hidden depths in them. One for most of the phrases of the Lord’s prayer. All the human characters in the pictures are children as we are all children of God.

Though it might be logical to start at the beginning  of the Lord’s prayer, in fact in view of the underlying rationale of Ash Wednesday, it makes much more sense today to talk about repentance and forgiveness. The phrase I will be using today is therefore of course

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Here is today’s picture. There’s a girl in the foreground with a slightly conspiratorial and miffed expression. Turning to the light and in the doorway one of her sisters looking more penitent is to be seen returning a beloved bear. The sister with the bear does look contrite. One hopes that the look in the wronged girl’s face melts as the bear is returned, and the girl bringing back the bear is duly forgiven and the whole incident is forgotten. It’s as easy as that! But from our life experiences we know this kind of forgiveness is far from easy. This kind of forgiveness is far from easy and sometimes depending on the circumstances can be beyond us. Likewise, sometimes things can drag on to the point that we have rather forgotten what they were about in the first place. There are difficult questions to address when we are the one being Getting caught out in the wrong can be very painful especially if we have made it worse with papering over the cracks of our actions. Or where more and more bluster won’t wash. Unfortunately, we have probably all been there and got the t-shirt at some point. It can have big implications and we may have made it worse in the mean time. But coming clean and being truly sorry for our actions is best for us and for everyone around us in the long term.

It is interesting that today’s gospel reading from Matthew is literally the teaching Jesus gave either side of teaching all the people listening to him on the mountain how to pray the Lord’s prayer. And it is all about not being hypocritical! So today a little later when it comes to our time of penitence and saying sorry to God, I will ask for forgiveness for my poor judgements. More importantly on those aspects of my life where I too am papering over the cracks of bad choices

The wording of this part of the Lord’s prayer is also difficult. The version we use week in week out uses the words trespasses, to describe what we have done wrong. For me this is not always the clearest of words. In modern language we have rather relegated the word related to a trespass to meaning straying on to land that is not ours. And its most common usage is in signs saying – Trespassers will be prosecuted

It is very difficult to talk about trespassing, without thinking of the trespassing going on in Ukraine currently. Let’s pause for some silence and pray – I will conclude this time with the prayer written by the Archbishops.

The original meaning of the word trespass is a transgression of a moral or social law, code, or duty. To trespass is to commit an offense or a sin; transgress or err, or to invade on privacy, time or attention of another. This idea of physically encroaching other’s boundaries is dominant today. We need to think of trespass in this more ancient way to use it correctly in the Lord’s prayer.

The more modern translation of the Lord’s prayer authorised for use in the Anglican Church substitutes the word sin for trespass. So the phrase goes – Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. This is more in keeping with how we use the word sin today. That word means – a transgression of a religious or moral law, especially when deliberate. In Christian terms – this can even be deliberate disobedience to the known will of God or something regarded as being shameful, deplorable, or utterly wrong. To sin means to violate a religious or moral law or to commit an offense or violation.

In our act of penitence, we will be reminded of the range of things beyond the scope of Christian morality and the potential for sin in our lives. This can be helpful as we bring to God our failings completely to wipe the slate clean as Lent begins.

On closer examination neither our usual translation of the Bible in either place the Lord’s prayer in the gospel is recorded or even in the King James version (KJV) renders this phrase exactly like we normally say it and this may surprise you. The Luke version in the KJV says ‘and forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us, and the Matthew version says and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Introducing the concept of debts, debtors and indebtedness into the mix. Any entanglement with a more protestant church in this country (particular the more protestant presbyterian element of Scotland) will have encountered this in the traditional version of the Lord’s prayer too.

Again in our development of language debt has come to mean, something owed, such as money, goods, or services or an obligation to pay something. Where as a more ancient understanding was a debt as an offense requiring forgiveness or reparation; The dictionary I looked up here had a rather circular reference indicating a debt was equivalent to a trespass. This develops into an understanding of being a debtor. Meaning as well as owing something to someone, being one who is guilty of a trespass or sin; a sinner. So using that word acknowledges my favourite Ash Wednesday line – We are all sinners! But takes us on also to the more useful verb brought to bear of being indebted and the adverb indebtedness!

What does to be indebted mean? Morally, socially, or legally obligated to another; beholden or  to be owing gratitude and thankfulness. This is where all this gets really interesting that there is and should be abiding thankfulness for forgiveness from God – Forgiveness we do not deserve but is ours through God’s love and the actions of his son. We are required to pass on our thankfulness to God for being forgiven by holding up the light of God’s forgiveness to those around us.

We have talked before about the power of forgiveness and examples of it from our contemporary world, which can transform things forever and most of all transform us. Let’s work through these thoughts by concentrating this Lent on our indebtedness to God, and our need to share God’s love with others by seeking forgiveness when we have been in the wrong. Mirroring the mercy of God by being forgiving when we have the opportunity.

I will end with one final observation about this picture that I do not think it is coincidence that the child seeking forgiveness is bathed in light and is bringing light into the room. As we seek to forgive and be forgiven we too will be bathed in the light of God’s love for us and stand a better chance of sharing that love with everyone we meet – bringing God’s light into the rooms where we are too. Amen

References:

Some material included in this service is copyright:  © The Archbishops’ Council 2000-2022

King James Version of the Bible in the public domain

The New Revised Standard Version (Anglicized Edition), copyright 1989, 1995

The Lord’s Prayer by Richard Jesse Watson published by Zonderkids 2010

Sunday before Lent – Exodus 34: 29-end, Luke 9: 28-36

I wonder if you have ever tried to have a conversation with someone who was wearing a head torch?  It is not possible to look them in the face, as the torch completely blinds you as I once discovered.  It seems that the people of Israel and Peter, James and John had a similar experience in our two bible readings.

Last week with Alison, we looked at part of the second narrative of the creation.  This week our Old Testament reading is the account of the second time that Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive the commandments from God.   You will recall that after the first occasion he came down from the mountain and found that the people had given him up for lost, and thinking that God had deserted them. had persuaded Aaron to make a golden calf for them to worship.  When Moses returned, he found them in a frenzy of worship to the calf and in his anger, he smashed the tablets of the law that he had brought down.  That part of the story doesn’t end well, but Moses was able to persuade God to allow the people a second chance, and so he climbed the mountain again.  On this occasion Moses has made a further request of God – that he might be allowed to see him.  Perhaps after the trauma of the first occasion Moses needed God to reinforce his calling.  Whatever the reason, God explains that to look Him in the face would be more than anyone could bear, but he allows him to hide in a crack in the rock while God goes by.  God protects him by covering him with his hand until He has passed, but allows Moses to see his glory when he has passed.  When Moses descends the mountain again, he learns from the reaction of the people that just being that close to God has made his face shine so that they cannot bear to look at him, and he wears a veil to cover this.

Starting on Wednesday, we shall be looking in all our reflections on various parts of the Lord’s prayer.  Like so many of the gospel readings recently this is something that appears both in Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels, and in Luke’s version Jesus gives the prayer in answer to a request from the disciples – in Luke chapter 11 the disciples find Jesus praying and ask him to teach them how to pray.  That request ‘Lord teach us to pray’ from Luke 11 v1 could well be our text for today to lead into Lent, as it was when Jesus was praying that the disciples saw him transfigured in this glorious way. This experience obviously stayed with them very clearly, as it is reported in Matthew’s, Mark’s and Luke’s gospels, and there is very little difference in the detail in all three versions.   Shortly after it has happened, when they descend the mountain again, they find the rest of the disciples in some distress as they have been unable to heal a boy brought to them by his distraught father.  After Jesus has healed the boy and the crowds have left, they ask him why they were unable to and his answer, as given in Mark’s gospel is that it could only be done with much prayer.  No wonder the disciples asked for instructions.

The prayer that Jesus gives us is very short – even the longer version from Matthew’s gospel said quite slowly takes less than a minute to say.  I don’t think for a moment however that Jesus intended our prayers to begin and end there.  I am becoming more and more convinced that our most effective prayer – and perhaps the one that just might bring us nearer to the state of having shining faces gets its theme from a country song (written by Paul Overstreet and Don Schiltz) that was a hit for Ronan Keating and featured in the film Notting Hill – ‘You say it best when you say nothing at all’.  We used to begin our Sunday worship with sentences from scripture – as we still do at funeral services, and one that I remember hearing often on a Sunday morning is from James 4: v8 ‘Come close to God and He will come close to you’.  Both Moses and Jesus knew this as we saw from our readings.

Silence is an increasingly rare commodity these days.  I am often vaguely irritated when I see people out and about wearing earpieces.  I am sure that listening to music helps them to exercise, and audio books are a good way to experience literature, but you cannot hear the birds sing, the sound of the wind in the trees or the water going over the waterfall with them in.  Not to mention the call of a friend nearby or the sound of a motor that would like them to move out of the way!  I wonder if more people would be concerned about the degree to which birdsong and population has declined recently if they took out their earpieces to listen.

We have a monthly meeting in Wincanton that I value greatly – it happens usually on the first Monday of the month in the Baptist Church, and is called a Julian meeting after Dame Julian of Norwich.  At 10.30 after a short chat together, we light a candle and listen to a short reading which we take turns to bring, and then move into a time of silence for half an hour before a short prayer of blessing and we go our separate ways.  Put like that it sounds a bit pointless, but it is a real opportunity to be in an attitude of prayer with others who are doing the same, and to just relax in the presence of God.  If you would like to attend, you would be very welcome, and I am happy to talk to anyone more about this.  Or perhaps you might like to try spending more time in silence as part of your Lent observance to see if you can be more aware of God’s loving presence.

I would like to finish today with a short, guided meditation that was given to me at the end of my Exploring Spirituality course and which I find useful in stilling and centring my mind on God.  I hope that you do to.

If you are reading this at home, do try the meditation which is on a separate sheet – you will need to find somewhere quiet to sit comfortably, relax and concentrate for a moment or two on being aware of your breathing before reading it slowly. Click Here: Meditation Be Still

Genesis 2:4b-9, Luke 8:22-25

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

There is a children’s story – called the ‘three trees’ of which we might be familiar. To give you a bit of a taster of how it goes it starts like this. There were three young trees growing on a mountain top, and each had a dream. The first wanted to hold a great treasure, the second wanted to be made into a ship to carry kings and the third wanted to grow so tall that people would look at it and always be drawn to God.

In the story and in different ways each of the trees got their wish. The first tree, once it had reached full maturity was cut down and made into an animal feeding box, which was the one that Mary laid Jesus in as a baby in the Bethlehem stable – hence its dream was fulfilled that the tree held the greatest treasure we have ever known. We have only recently left behind our remembrance of these events, and it is always important to remember the power and the vulnerability that came to earth at the first Christmas.

So what of the second tree? I suspect we have worked out given our gospel reading today, that the second tree, once it too had reached full maturity, was made into the disciple’s fishing boat, and the king it carried was Jesus on the stormy day the disciples’ encountered. I have long loved this story in the gospels, and if I am asked by children what my favourite Bible story is – this would often be the answer. While Jesus slept, the disciples got increasingly agitated as the storm got going. We have had a lot of stormy weather this week to contemplate. We weren’t in a boat buffeted by the waves (or at least I certainly hope we weren’t on Friday) but we can readily imagine the peril and fear. I didn’t particularly enjoy watching the trees being violently shaken (and specifically not the rather wobbly telegraph poles opposite my house shaking in the wind).

I didn’t have the option on Friday to do what the disciples did. I wish I had! As the situation grew worse, the disciples woke Jesus. I have always been very struck by the description that Jesus slept as the storm got up. His connection with God held him and enabled him to sleep (whilst the disciples were getting increasingly panicky!) Jesus rapidly calmed the situation. This must have been so impressive to watch when it happened. Jesus asked the disciples ‘Where is your faith?’ This is a very good question. As we are always beloved children of God, our response to that love God has for us is our faith. This question Jesus asked of the disciples ‘Where is your faith?’ does speak to our hearts today. If we were with Jesus in the boat in the storm – how would we answer? Would we too be both afraid and amazed at his actions and the love he had for us. It is an interesting combination, and one that would leave us perplexed and thoughtful.

The physical storms and the other kinds of stormy times we experience can be very testing. We often describe the difficult times in our lives as storms even if they have nothing to do with the weather. These times when they come along, have a nasty knack of getting us firmly out of our ‘comfort’ zones and happy places. They are never very welcome, but often the times when we learn and grow the most, when we get back to the first principle of relying on God to give us the strength we need for each next step we make. When our faith is a source of peace in the face of adversity, when we find the still small voice guiding us and inspiring us in ways we might never have noticed in better times.

In stormy times, we do really only need to concern ourselves with the next step we need to take, and we need to be wary of making the situation worse by wanting to know more than anyone can about how life is going to turn out? Life in general seems to have been very short on certainties in recent times, and that has been draining! The lack of certainty in our present circumstances has been trying, but there is no lack of certainty in the love God has for us. Sometimes we just need to hand over to God the things that are troubling us the most in our prayers, and the time will come when our prayers are answered to God’s plan and unique design for us (and not our own of course!).

So after that diversion into thinking about the second tree which became the disciples’ boat. What of the dream of the third tree? The third tree wanted to grow so tall that people would look at it and always be drawn to God. Like many of us the third tree had a different path to the one it expected. It didn’t get to grow tall, and the tree was cut down before it reached full maturity. The wood was left in the wood store for many years. Yet this third tree did get to point to God forever and uniquely, because this was the tree that was used for the wood of the cross used to crucify Jesus. The version of the three tree story explains how the tree struggled as it was carried through the jeering crowd and the pain of bearing Jesus as he died. And yet on the Sunday morning, as the earth moved beneath the tree, the third tree knew that God’s love had changed everything. And this made the third tree strong, as the tree knew that when people thought about the cross, they would always think of God’s forever love for us as the tree had wanted.

As our thoughts turn to the cross once more as Lent is looming on the horizon, this is the time to attend to our faith and renew our spiritual walk.  I hope we are giving some thought and prayer as to how Lent this year is going to attend to our faith.

One of the things we may need to dwell on in this spiritual walk is given to us in the second account of creation in Genesis, which was our first reading today. A bit like last week with Luke’s beatitudes, we are more familiar with the first account of creation, which gives an orderly account each day of God’s activities. The second account of creation and the chapter that follows it serves a different purpose from the first. Yes, it is important to understand that God made the world in all its complexity, but this second account explains more of the role of humankind, and then goes on to explain how humankind got in its first big messy storm (apples, snakes etc…).

In the Genesis 2 story, we get a much more intimate description of how God made the first man. The man was formed from the dust of the ground, and then God literally breathed life into him. The touch of the creator is on each of us and in each of us – we have not been made in quite this way, but God’s touch in our hearts and lives is just as important. Each breath we take, each move we make, each beat of our hearts, each turn of our fortunes, we are God’s beloved children and we cannot make God love us more or less, God loves us at our best, at our worst and in sorrow and in joy! In our spiritual walk this Lent, we do need to dwell in the love God has for us to feed our faith no matter how stormy our current experiences are.

In the Genesis 2 account, God then makes a garden filled with trees, including the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good or evil. We don’t get another reference to the tree of life until the latter part of the vision in Revelation – where in the eternal city, the tree of life then spans the river of the water of life and produces 12 crops of fruit each year, and has leaves for the healing of the nations. And one day we will see that in all its heavenly glory. This is the second thing we need to dwell on in our spiritual walk this Lent, that God so loved the world that he sent Jesus to save us, so that we can know God’s love for us now, but then more fully for eternity. Yes, we will need to reflect on how the cross made with the third tree’s wood points to God’s amazing love for us, but also see in faith how this opened the heaven’s to us and opened our hearts to the power of the Holy Spirit today.

I talked last week about starting on Ash Wednesday, attending the churches together lent course, and our reflections on the Lord’s prayer in our worship. I hope whatever it is that we decide to do to help us reflect on our spiritual walk this Lent it will help us to rely on God’s love for us, will build up our faith and will draw us to God’s love for us now and forever. Amen

References:

https://bible.org/illustration/story-three-trees The New Revised Standard Version (Anglicized Edition), copyright 1989, 1995

Jeremiah 17:5-10, Luke 6:17-26

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit

The gospel reading we have just heard, is not the most familiar version of some of these sayings of Jesus. This year we are in Luke’s gospel primarily, and the most familiar version of some of these sayings of Jesus is in Matthew’s gospel. We even have coined a special name for them – the beatitudes. I did some work on these sayings with some year 5 children once, and we described them as “be attitudes”. Attitudes to life that would help us live well! How to be! It did help us to get into them and understand them a bit better, they do contain a level of wisdom but not easy to understand wisdom!

Anyway, Luke’s take on this is all a bit different. In Matthew these sayings are the start of what we describe as the sermon on the mount, and in Luke there is not a mountain in sight! Jesus is also looking and potentially addressing these remarks to the disciples rather than the crowd gathered as a whole. In Matthew we only get statements that started ‘Blessed are’ where as in Luke we get four starting ‘Blessed are’ and then the opposite sense of the statement starting ‘Woe to you’, which are a tougher hear to those living in the relatively affluent parts of the world.

There’s a lot of topsy turvey, inside out and upside down about these statements which reflect an understanding of God’s kingdom and not conventional wisdom. We would not conventionally say for example it is blessed to be hungry or rejected for example. Nor would we say it was a woe to be rich, full or laughing! Jesus’ teaching of the woes indicates there are potential barriers to living a blessed life, if we become too obsessed by what we have and are living too much for ourselves and not for others.

So how do we live a blessed life? The prophet Jeremiah in our reading shows the critical point being trust in the Lord. In fact, not just trust in the Lord but living as those whose trust is the Lord.

Jeremiah started with an illustration of a plant living in an arid place impacted by any adverse conditions that come along, being those who rely on human capacity rather than God’s love for them. This is compared with an illustration of being rooted in the Lord as being like ‘a tree by water’ and able to withstand difficult conditions come what may. We are blessed when we are rooted in Christ, the water of life. This stems from a deep desire to know him and to have him in every part of our lives. It means we surrender and submit to God. God is the one who keeps us settled and grounded.

Are we aware of our roots? What are we rooted in? Where does our trust lie?

We are often aware of the roots of plants and trees, certainly when we work in our gardens, or when a tree dies or blows over in a storm. Trees and plants often have deep roots that can draw water and nutrients from the soil even in very dry periods. We can rarely see the roots (and often they are as deep and wide below the ground as the tree is above it!) but we know they are there, growing over the years and sustaining the plant’s development. The analogy for us as Christians is clear: we are to be rooted in God, seeking to do God’s will, trusting in God’s power and grace at all times.

Jeremiah asks us to be aware of our roots and where our trust lies. He asks us to be cautious about our choices, to suspect our own motives which can be perverse, and to consider the fruit of our doings. For us or for God? This is always a good question. And one that can help us turn back and re-assert our determination to follow God’s will for our lives and not the devices and desires of our own hearts. It is interesting the way Jeremiah describes this with the Lord ‘testing the mind and searching the heart’. There is a sense that God knows us and loves us better than we know and love ourselves. We need to pay attention to the motivations of our hearts. A good test question – is “will this build the kingdom of God?” Things which are self-serving or self-righteous do not stand up well to this testing question.

Going back to the beatitudes in Luke’s working of them. They are also things to make the first disciples and us think. The first and second blessed and the first and second woe statement addresses material wealth and hunger. The danger here is that our personal orientation towards our material goods and bounty limits or warps our orientation towards God.  The commentary I read suggested we can be sucked into self-confidence based on what we have, or it just being about how we can enjoy our lives, rather than the walk of discipleship and faith. It is my view that we need to be very careful about money and stuff that it doesn’t become an end in itself. The uncomfortable reality is we live in the part of the world where food is plentiful (yet we still have record numbers of people regularly using food banks and let alone the parts of the world where food is scarce). In many ways the pandemic has shaken some of our confidence in the material stuff of life – But the point Luke is getting to is a different matter – staying confident and reliant on God.

Lent is looming over the horizon, starting on 2^nd March and we are approaching a time when generally we pay more attention to our spiritual health as we prepare for Easter. It is definitely time to start thinking about how we might mark Lent this year in our individual walk of discipleship. We may wish to join the Churches Together in Wincanton Lent course – based on the film ‘The Way’. More detail about this is in the newsletter this week.

Coming to worship on Ash Wednesday is also a good starting point. (The Communion Service with optional imposition of ashes is at 7pm on 2^nd March in Wincanton). We spend a little longer in this service clearing the decks and repenting of our sins – but it is a helpful fresh start or reset in our walk with God.

I also think an important theme for this Lent is taking time to look at our reliance on God. In our worship during Lent, we are going to explore the statements of the Lord’s prayer week by week (with a bit of a breather for Mothering Sunday). This prayer is something we say day by day, week by week and year by year and is a distillation of our reliance on God and all he has done for us. Maybe we can spend more time week by week during Lent, dwelling in these words for ourselves. If we would value help in doing that, or guidance to material which might help do not hesitate to get in touch.

Whatever we decide to do for Lent, let’s make sure it touches our hearts and their priorities because as I said earlier this is the crux of the matter in our walk of faith. I am going to end with repeating a couple of verses from our Isaiah reading.

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat come, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. Amen

References:

Some material from © Copyright 2002-2022, ROOTS for Churches Ltd.

The New Revised Standard Version (Anglicized Edition), copyright 1989, 1995

Word Biblical Commentary Luke by John Nolland and Word Biblical Commentary Jeremiah by Peter C Craigie et al.

Isaiah 6:1-8, Luke 5:1-11

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen

Both our readings today are about a moment of call on someone’s life from God. First, that magnificent passage from the early part of Isaiah – describing his vision with seraphs and lots of wings. It was how God called him to become a prophet. Isaiah did not feel worthy and his sins was forgiven via the action of Seraph with a hot coal.

Being a prophet means being a messenger from God. A go-between from God to his people. The characteristics of a prophets encompass 3 specific things. Firstly, that call from God – An experience or experiences to convince them to do what God wanted – As Isaiah had and to which he responded – Here I am send me. Secondly, a message from God to pass on – At least one often more as in this Isaiah’s case many across the first 40 chapters of his book in the Old Testament. And thirdly, Prayer – A lot of time spent in prayer and praising God, and having a good relationship with God.

Isaiah did a range of things in response to his call to and for the Israelite people of his day. He offered forgiveness of sins. He renewed the covenant promises of their ancestors. He encouraged people in times of suffering. He encouraged the people to live the way that God wanted. He also prayed diligently. Finally, Isaiah told of things to come using the messages he got from God – Both short term things to help the Israelites in their current situation and also to point forward to a time when God would intervene decisively in the life of the nation by sending his own special representative – We know all about this as this was about sending Jesus. And it is early chapters of Isaiah we turn to in our prophecies in Advent and Carol Services. All of this happening some seven to eight hundred years before the birth of Christ.

Our offertory hymn today is 235 a modern classic I the Lord of sea and sky – based on the ideas in the chapter from Isaiah we heard. The words of the chorus respond to a question from God. Whom shall I send? And continue.. Here I am Lord, Is it I, Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go Lord, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart.

Where we are called by God we need to respond as Isaiah did. Here I am, send me!

The second reading was one in the early days of Jesus ministry. It has been a lean night for fish for Simon Peter and his fellow fishermen on the shore of lake Gennesaret. After teaching the people, Peter followed Jesus instructions to go fishing out deeper. Peter vocalised his compliance because Jesus had asked him and the mother of all catches followed promptly. Like Isaiah, Peter recognised his sinfulness, and yet Jesus still called him and used him. Do not be afraid Jesus said – from now on you will be catching people.

These moments changed things radically for both the prophet Isaiah and disciple Peter. They responded and followed the path God had for them. Peter’s was a bit rocky but I find great solace in that – when I trip over the rocks on the way too.

I am struck by these thoughts of call coming on the day Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne. And we remember her in our prayers this day and as she also marks the 70^th anniversary of her beloved father’s death. From that day and well before in fact the Queen has lived a life of devoted Christian service and has seen her role very much as a call on her life from God.

We feel we know the twists and turns of the plot of this story, particularly this day with her being many miles away in Kenya at Treetops. Dramatisations are widely available of how our Queen became next in line to the throne (but please remember they are dramatisations!). But we don’t really know I suspect, one minute as a reasonably young child, it was unlikely to be her destiny and then it really was too! Her father died young in our terms at 47, and long before she would realistically have expected to be approaching the throne. We will remember her words from her 21^st birthday broadcast

I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted in our service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.

But I shall not have strength to carry out this resolution alone unless you join in it with me, as I now invite you to do: I know that your support will be unfailingly given.

God help me to make good my vow, and God bless all of you who are willing to share it.

The essence of her response to the challenge set before her has been to recognise it as God’s call on her heart and life. Just like Peter’s and Isaiah’s. Six months before her coronation, the Queen asked the people of our country and the commonwealth to pray for her That God may give me wisdom and strength to carry out the solemn promises I will be making, and that I may faithfully serve Him and you, all the days of my life.

From what we have seen, God has clearly and unequivocally answered those prayers and she has been a leader with deep and authentic faith, and whose wisdom has benefitted many she has encountered over all these years! Later this year we will be giving thanks for her as part of the Platinum jubilee celebrations. Be that via the beacon lighting, the national concert and horse display and in some special worship. But today let’s learn from her example of Christian discipleship and following God’s call on her life as we contemplate God’s call on our lives.

I am going to end these thoughts reflecting on call with the traditional prayer for the anniversary of Queens accession to the throne. The text of this is also available in this week’s newsletter

Let us pray

O God, who providest for thy people by thy power, and rulest over them in love: Vouchsafe so to bless thy Servant our Queen, that under her this nation may be wisely governed, and thy Church may serve thee in all godly quietness; and grant that she being devoted to thee with her whole heart, and persevering in good works unto the end, may, by thy guidance, come to thine everlasting kingdom; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

REFERENCES

The New Revised Standard Version (Anglicized Edition), copyright 1989, 1995

• The Servant Queen and the King she services – Bible Society Mark Greene and Katherine Butcher
• https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/liturgical-resources-hm-queens-platinum-jubilee
• CCLI – Song reproduced under CCLI 1618191 for St Michael’s Church Pen Selwood

Hebrews 2:1-14, Luke 2:22-40

In the name of the Father, the Son and The Holy Spirit, Amen.

The phrase Let go and let God – is one that I can often be heard saying to myself. Particularly when life takes an unusual and unexpected turn. This phrase has been a pretty constant companion in the ups and downs of my life here! I use this phrase – Let go and let God – To take a step back, and look into whatever experience it may be that is happening and see where God is working within it and to pause to pray. The idea being to let the Holy Spirit into my heart to influence me and to move me forward:-

• Letting the Spirit work as the wind blowing us to our next step.

• Letting the Spirit work as water that cleanses and purifies us, and fills us with new life.

• Or letting the Spirit work as the light which guides us every step of the way.

Living firmly in the influence of the Spirit is how Simeon lived his life. Simeon who we heard about in our gospel reading this morning. Simeon is introduced to us as an old man of great faith, and one to whom the Spirit has revealed that he would see the Christ, the Messiah in his lifetime. Simeon lived with an attitude of expectant waiting. Our passage said the Holy Spirit rested on him.

Tune in for a moment to Simeon. OK, he had a revelation of the future, that he was going to see the Messiah, but we don’t know what he made of that? We also don’t know if it made sense to him or what he expected to see. I have always doubted he thought it would a babe in arms he would see. Much more likely to have expected a powerful mighty king to overthrow the Romans from other expectations of the day concerning the Messiah.

To his absolute credit Simeon doesn’t waver in his walk with the Spirit. He goes to the temple on that particular day because the Spirit urged him. We don’t know what else he had planned or how inconvenient it was for him to do that.  And on seeing the baby he does not hesitate in his recognition of Jesus as the Messiah. (Surprising as it must have been) – as he took the babe in his arms

He said some of the most profound words in all the New Testament. Words we hold very dear – words which we use regularly in our worship to this very day and in the Book of Common Prayer rendering

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

Words that in their power and simplicity move us, but were really radical in his day – as they included us and everyone in Jesus mission on earth – not just the people of Israel. These words are literally his outpouring of what the Spirit had revealed to Simeon. Both before this day and on this day. They are addressed to God and attest to all that Simeon has witnessed. Simeon has also now fulfilled his God given mission and can rest in peace.

Simeon took the unexpected, does not appear to blink an eye and ran with it. He ran with it openly, honestly and obediently to wherever the Spirit led him. Irrespective of the elders and other priests – and those gathered round. Those around may well have thought Simeon was losing the plot rather than welcoming the Messiah. Simeon was probably very grateful to Anna for taking up the mantle in her praise we hear later in this account.

We don’t get any insights into how anyone witnessing this scene reacted beyond Anna, Mary and Joseph. Anna reinforced what Simeon had said. And Mary and Joseph are described as amazed! This astonishment is likely to be a marker of the presence of God in all this.

Simeon goes on to speak to Mary adding to the things in Luke’s gospel that Mary had to ponder on in her heart as Jesus was growing up and in his life as it unfolded. So after blessing them, mother, father and child  what Simeon then said to Mary was about Jesus’ bigger and God given destiny.

‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’

There are schools of thought that in the devout Simeon these are words that are based on prophecy in Isaiah 8

¹⁴ He will become a sanctuary, a stone one strikes against; for both houses of Israel he will become a rock one stumbles over—a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁵ And many among them shall stumble; they shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.

Of a better known verse from Psalm 118 – the stone that the builders rejected will become the chief Cornerstone. These are also words Jesus himself said later on in Luke’s gospel and are built on by St Paul in Romans and St Peter in his first letter. Jesus arrival will bring salvation and also division to those who turn away from him.

We need follow this example of Simeon and walk confidently with Holy Spirit walking with us when the unexpected as well as the expected comes in our lives. Because we cannot tell what life has in store for anyone of us. However we can recognise and celebrate God’s presence with us in all of it. The power of the Holy Spirit, that Jesus left for us, to move in our lives and rest on us and the hope we have in the salvation Jesus won for us.

Our faith in God is a journey, in Simeon we have an example of someone nearing the end of their journey, open and willing to move with the Spirit – no matter how that made him look and how unexpected it all was. For us on our journeys, let us be just as open and willing to move with the Holy Spirit in our lives as Simeon was.

I have chosen the name Simeon for our prayer lion. Our prayer lion will feature in days ahead and the new works with a family focus (to help us grow younger and activities we are currently praying for). Simeon is a prayer lion – and will be helping us with our prayers in family friendly services moving forward.

The name Simeon means he hears or more distinctly from its’ Hebrew routes – he who heard God. When we pray, we are listening for God speaking to us and prompting us. This may happen in our prayers or in our encounters or activities subsequently, or in our walk through the scriptures and prayers day by day. It is important to stay connected and listening for God’s promptings and urgings as Simeon did all those years ago. To pause and Let go and let God!

Simeon the prayer lion’s favourite bible verse is from Joshua – Be bold and courageous, for the Lord your God is with you. Just as Simeon the old man in the temple was bold and courageous in following how the Spirit guided him. Where the wind of the Spirit blows us, where the water of Spirit flows through  us and where the light of the Spirit shines in us – let that be guide to our path in the twists and turns of life and particularly as it so has when the unexpected comes.

Let’s let go and Let God into our hearts!

Amen

©  The Crown/Cambridge University Press: The Book of Common Prayer (1662)

The New Revised Standard Version (Anglicized Edition), copyright 1989, 1995

Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10, Luke 4:14-21

In the name of the living God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

For the last couple of weeks our Old Testament readings have been pointing to the return of the Israelite people from after their exile in Babylon, and the work of rebuilding their community and the temple was ongoing. Today’s interesting passage from Nehemiah, takes us there. The previously exiled Israelites are in Jerusalem and the surrounding area (several generations later from those who were exiled). So there isn’t a direct sense of return or going back for the individuals concerned but a community sense instead. This is remembrance, rather than remembering for those there at the time.

Work on the temple was advancing and the walls were up. We tune in to Ezra and the Levite priests, gathering the people together in the square before the water gate. Ezra had within him the book of the law. It was a momentous moment, marking a significant new beginning for the people. They recognised the importance of worshiping God, as Ezra opened the book and what Ezra and the priests then did was standing together, they read from the law of God and interpreted it so the people understood what was being read. What I really liked about this account was that Ezra and the priests did this standing together. We have one of these readings where verses are missed out. Verse 4 and verse 7 to be precise and these readings contain the names of the priests with Ezra. I suspect this was done to make it easier to read (as the priests were Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkaih and Maaseiah at his right hand and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hash-Baddannah, Zechariah and Meshullam on his left.

All this impacted on the people listening, and they wept as they heard the words of the law and the explanations. The solidarity of them standing together like this had an impact – Why weeping, listening to where they had moved away from the path God had set them perhaps, and conscious of God’s forgiveness and generosity in love that had brought them to this new point. Acknowledging their need for a fresh start, where they had fallen short and the sinfulness of the generations before them.

Ezra, stressed however it was not the time for weeping, but for marking their new start. Recognising the holiness, the presence of God with them on that day at that time, and their need to rely on God for their strength. What he actually said was for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Let go of the past, look forward, share with those in need and look for joy.

Joy is an interesting spiritual fruit, the work of God in us through his Holy Spirit gives us any joy we experience and it is about knowing Jesus. We can be very sad but also experience great joy through our faith.  According to the justdisciple.com website. The biblical definition of joy says that joy is a feeling of good pleasure and happiness that is dependent on who Jesus is rather than on who we are or what is happening around us. Joy comes from the Holy Spirit, abiding in God’s presence and from hope in His word. So the joy the Israelites were to experience was based on unpacking of the word and the strength to do what needed to be done next – each individual step. I am not sure good pleasure and happiness quite capture the sense of it, maybe deeper inner contentment and a sense of the presence of God with us get’s closer to it.

If we turn to our gospel reading, Jesus is returning from the wilderness, to begin his earthly ministry, and is described as full of the power of the Spirit. This is likely to have meant he was feeling joyful in the power of God, that his time for teaching, a new beginning for him had come. Doing the work God has for us, does bring joy. Jesus marked this moment specifically on the sabbath in his hometown, by reading from the prophet Isaiah about what he had come to do. He is not standing with others (as he has yet to recruit disciples) but standing in a place where he is well known to mark this change God had wrought in him and his purposes for the next stage of his journey. Definitely a beginning and a beginning that changed everything for us.

Whatever was happening here it was a powerful experience. The passage says the eyes of all the synagogue were fixed on him and the verse after where our gospel ended says: All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. It was clearly an important moment. He was sharing his joy at God’s anointing and his mission ahead. It is asking us to rely on God’s strength in Jesus’ name and to be joyful in what God calls us to do in Jesus’ name. Joyful in the way that only God can give us through the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

We have several hymns which pick up on the Spirit-given nature of joy. For example, in Sing Hosanna – give me joy in my heart keep me serving or the start of Love divine – love divine all loves excelling, joy of heaven to earth come down. The final verse of Jesus, good above all other, says Lord, in all our doings guide us, pride and hate shall ne’er divide us; we’ll go on with thee beside us, and with joy we’ll persevere. After the difficult times we have been traversing, I don’t think it would be inappropriate to be praying for the deepening of the spiritual gift of joy in our hearts and in the lives of our churches, to give us the strength we need for the journey ahead of us.

As we pray to be blessed, we should also recognise the need of standing together as Ezra did with his priests on his left and right and surrounded by the people. It has been fractious times we have been walking through together, where frustrations, anxiety and anger can be nearer to our surfaces and reactions than we want them to be.

I am going to end these thoughts with a story about dragons to illustrate our need for deepening joy in our love of God overflowing to others, and it is called the last thousand dragons.

There are many legends dealing with the extinction of dragons, but only one of them involves a certain Sir Emile, a brave knight who finished off the last thousand dragons. Like many others, Sir Emile spent years studying the cruel and wicked behaviour of the dragons of his time. However, his own particular conclusions were unique and unusual: dragons lived in a constant state of anger, which created the fire that came from their mouths.

So, when he decided to finish the dragons off, he swapped the normal weapons and armour of a knight for something rather unusual: a joke and a cart full of ice creams. When the first dragon came to eat him, Sir Emile shouted his joke at it. It was such a good joke that even the dragon had to laugh. Just as the brave knight had expected, this blew the dragon’s fire out. Just as the dragon was laughing, Sir Emile offered it an ice cream…

How refreshed and pleasant the dragon now felt, after years of having had a fiery throat! Taking advantage of the dragon having calmed down for a moment, Sir Emile offered it a piece of fruit, and to the dragon this tasted heavenly and the dragon felt delight and joy for the very first time.

Dragons didn’t normally eat fruit or vegetables, because the fire of their mouths burned such food and left it without any taste. So they preferred to eat cows or people, which, even though left a bit singed, at least tasted of something. However, when the dragon tasted fresh fruit for the first time, it felt so happy and joyful as it experienced the presence of God in creation through the fruit, that even its terrible appearance began to change. It had looked so bad because of its awful diet, but after only a few days of this new, healthier life, the dragon disappeared one night. All that remained of it was a beautiful butterfly with large colourful wings… Amen.                                                       

The New Revised Standard Version (Anglicized Edition), copyright 1989, 1995, https://justdisciple.com/biblical-joy, All songs reproduced under CCL license numbers: 1618191 and 217043, https://freestoriesforkids.com/children/stories-and-tales/last-thousand-dragons